World Water Week in Stockholm has just ended. It was a full week of intensive discussions on our most urgent issues: Water and Food Security.

The theme varies from year to year, but we at the 2030 Water Resources Group (WRG) are very satisfied with this year’s theme, since these are the challenges that much of our work focuses on, in the countries where we are operating.

The participation from the business community has increased during World Water Week, and continues to increase year upon year, which is both essential and appreciated by many others.

Prize winning awards

During the week, a number of prizes and awards were presented to individuals or institutions. This year’s winner of the Stockholm Water Prize is the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). Over the past few decades it has done an outstanding job in the field of how to reduce water use in agriculture.

We are happy working with IWMI in different areas, and warmly congratulate them on this well deserved recognition. Another winner is PepsiCo, who received the Stockholm Industry Water Award for its successful and endless effort to reduce its water footprint, both in production of raw materials for their products and in product manufacturing.

We are very proud to have both last year’s winner, Nestlé, and this year’s winner of this prestigious award as partners in our group.

Extending the approach

The WRG also organised an event during World Water Week with the aim of extending our approach to the participants, plus boosting the very fruitful collaboration between the Public and Private sectors in which we facilitate in the countries where we are working. This is with strong participation from the civil society and non-governmental organisations. We had the privilege of having high-level representatives from Mexico and South Africa, as well as the country of Sweden, who is interested in supporting our work.

Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, chairman of WRG, was not able to join us at the event so I’m reporting back as guest blogger on his behalf.

Increasing priorities

The cases from Mexico and South Africa both are very strong testimonies on the usefulness of our approach.

Both countries have underlined the importance of the fact-based approach on water resource management, putting the costs and benefits of various interventions firmly on the table for everyone to see and discuss.

In Mexico, this has led to the creation of a new water strategy, increasing the priority for water in the national planning and new investments in the water sector. In South Africa, work is still ongoing, but the multi-stakeholder platform that is currently in action is expecting concrete results in the form of implementable projects and programmes before the end of the year.

Expanding coverage

The event was well attended and the participants very supportive. It is indeed encouraging for us to note how many people find our approach innovative, helpful and courageous, and know how many new countries would like to join our partnership.

With more financial resources, we will be able to expand our coverage substantially over the next few years.